DES MOINES, Iowa – Over a thousand attendees filled the ball room of the Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center on Friday, July 12, to be encouraged and challenged by a stellar lineup of guest speakers, including keynotes Dr. Michael Youssef – pastor of Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, Georgia, and voice of Leading the Way ministries – and The Honorable Betsy DeVos, a long-time champion of parental choice in education and the former U.S. Secretary of Education under President Donald Trump.
DeVos joined Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and The FAMiLY Leader President and CEO Bob Vander Plaats in a “fireside chat” format that included a focus on school choice.
“I am one of the biggest fans of Gov. Reynolds that exists,” DeVos affirmed. “And it’s due to her principled and fearless leadership. My heart has been about education reform for more than three decades, and her fearlessness in empowering families to make the right choices for each of their children is admirable.”
Gov. Reynolds then talked about the story of how she became so passionate about school choice. She recalled how Iowa was once a national education leader but fell from its lofty rankings. And when she traveled the state as lieutenant governor to speak about reforms to revive our schools, she met many parents who assumed Iowa’s decline was always some other school’s fault.
“You think those problems are always in other school districts, not in mine,” Reynolds said. “But COVID served it up on a platter, gave parents the opportunity to see what was happening in their classrooms. ... And when I saw public school board members send their children from the closed public schools [because of COVID] to private schools they could afford, but others in their district could not – that was the last straw for me.”
The day’s speakers also included the Iowa 2012 GOP presidential caucus winner, U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, Dr. Del Tackett of The Engagement Project, BlazeTV host Steve Deace, New York Times best-selling author Joel C. Rosenberg, and Dr. Yechiel Leiter, the former chief of staff to then-Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The audience also heard an address from Vander Plaats, as well as TFL Executive Vice President Greg Baker, and The FAMiLY Leader’s elections and policy team, led by TFL Vice President and Chief Counsel Chuck Hurley.
One of the highlights of the day was a panel discussion with Baker, Vander Plaats, and representatives of sister ministries of The DANiEL Impact from the states of Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
The DANiEL Impact is The FAMiLY Leader’s ambitious initiative to mentor other state organizations across the country in its successful ministry model – inspiring the Church, impacting elections, influencing policy, and igniting partnerships – until one day all 50 states and the District of Columbia have a local ministry equipped to enact the TDI model. Today, The DANiEL Impact is being implemented in 20 of those states, through a growing network of over 35,000 churches nationwide.
Missed the Summit? Or want to re-live it? Stay tuned to The FAMiLY Leader’s website and social media in the weeks following for more photos and videos from this year’s FAMiLY Leadership Summit!